The Price is Right
ORIGINAL VERSION OPENING SPIELS: NBC Daytime: "Today, these four bargain hunters match their shopping skills as (sponsor's products) present... The Price is Right, the exciting game of bidding, buying, and bargaining." NBC Primetime: "Tonight, these four people meet to compete for the prizes of a lifetime on... The Price is Right." ABC Daytime: "Today, (celebrity name) bids for prizes with these contestants on The Price is Right." ABC Primetime: "Backstage are some of the most exciting prizes on television. On our panel tonight is (superlatives; celebrity name). Stand by for The Price is Right!" CURRENT VERSION OPENING SPIELS: 72-75 Daytime/Syndicated 72-80 Spiel: (From Television City in Hollywood) a fortune in fabulous prizes may go to these people today/tonight if they know when "The Price is Right"! Syndicated 85-86 Spiel (1): Here it is, all new, and this audience is sparkling with excitement; because a fortune in fabulous prizes may be theirs if they know when "The Price is Right"! Syndicated 85-86 Spiel (2): Here it is, all new, a show that's sparkling with excitement; because a fortune in fabulous prizes may be won tonight if "The Price is Right"! Current Spiel: Here it comes! (From the Bob Barker Studio at CBS Television City in Hollywood.) It's (television's most exciting hour of fantastic prizes) (Celebrating its 25th year on CBS,) THE (fabulous 60-minute) PRICE IS RIGHT! (insert contestant names) COME ON DOWN! You are the first four contestants on "THE PRICE IS RIGHT"! And now here's (your host/the star of The (New/Nighttime) Price is Right), (insert host's name)! 1986 Primetime Special Spiel: Here it comes!! With fantastic NEW prizes! Television's most EXCITING hour! The fabulous 60-minute PRICE IS RIGHT SPECIAL! (insert contestant names) COME ON DOWN! You are the first four contestant on this "SPECIAL PRICE IS RIGHT"! And now your host for this special hour, the star of The Price is Right, BOB BARKER! Doug Davidson Spiel: Get set, America! It's time to Come on Down! From Studio 33 in Hollywood, home of America's favorite games and the world's most fabulous prizes, it's THE NEW PRICE IS RIGHT! And now, here's the star of The New Price is Right, DOUG DAVIDSON! An ultra successful game show based on pricing and values. Its success can possibly be from the fact that contestants are picked right from the studio audience by virtue of the call to "Come on Down!" as well as the numerous minigames played for prizes. The Models 50s Version Beverly Bentley June Ferguson Maryann James Gail Sheldon Carolyn Stroupe Toni Wallace Current Version Manuela Arbeláez Kathleen Bradley Starr Campbell Lanisha Cole Phire Dawson Chantel Dubay Jennifer England Anitra Ford Lisa Gleave Teri Harrison Holly Hallstrom Claudia Jordan Lauren Jones Heather Kozar Amber Lancaster Cindy Margolis Tamiko Nash Gena Lee Nolin Gwendolyn Osborne-Smith Dian Parkinson Janice Pennington Rebecca Mary Pribonic Rachel Reynolds Stephanie Leigh Schlund Brandi Sherwood Shane Stirling Gabrielle Tuite Mylinda Tov Natasha Yi Nikki Zeno Nikki Ziering Sub Models Kyle Aletter Sharon Friem 1994 Nighttime Models Julie Lynn Cialini Ferrari Farris Lisa Stahl 50s & 60s Version Gameplay On the original version of The Price Is Right, four contestants (one a returning champion, the other three chosen from the studio audience) bid on items or ensembles of items in an auction-style format. A prize was presented for the contestants to bid on with a minimum bid specified. After the opening bid was made, contestants bid on the item in turn with each successive bid a certain amount higher than the previous bid. Instead of increasing their bid, a contestant could freeze their current bid on their turn if he/she believed his/her bid was close enough to win. A later rule added allowed contestants, on their opening bid only, to "underbid" the other bids, but this automatically froze their bid and prevented them from later increasing the original bid. Also, some rounds were one-bid rounds, where only one round of bidding was held, and sometimes the minimum bid and higher bid threshold rules were also waived. The bidding process continued until a time's up buzzer sounded, at which point each contestant who had not yet "frozen" was given one final bid, or at least three of the contestants had frozen. The fourth contestant was allowed one final bid, unless he/she already had the high bid. Cullen then read the actual retail price of the prize; the contestant whose bid was closest without going over won the item. If everyone overbid, the prize was not won; however, Cullen sometimes had the overbids erased and instructed everyone to give lower bids prior to reading the actual price. Frequently, a bell rang after the winner was revealed, indicating a bonus prize accompanied the item up for bids. While this was frequently simply an additional prize, a bonus game often accompanied the prize (e.g., a tune-matching game, where a clip of a well-known song was played and the contestant matched it with a face for a cash bonus). After a set number of rounds (four on the nighttime version, six on the daytime), the contestant who accumulated the most money in cash and prizes became the champion and returned on the next show. Celebrity Contestants During the ABC run of the show, Celebrities came on as contestants and played against the three civilian contestants (one a returning champion) while trying to win prizes for a home viewer or studio audience member. Even if they win the game, celebrities can only play for one day/night although they can come back for a future appearance. So if the celebrity did manage to win the most, then the contestant with the highest total of all the civilians came back as the champion. Home Viewer "Showcases" The Price Is Right frequently featured a home viewer "Showcase", a multi-prize package for which home viewers were invited to submit their bids via postcard. The viewer who was closest to the actual retail price without going over won everything in the Showcase, but one item was sometimes handmade so the viewer could not check the price of all the items. The term "Showcase" would, in time, be replaced by "sweepstakes". Very often, home viewers were stunningly accurate with their bids, including several viewers who guessed the price correct down to the penny. In such a case, the tied contestants were informed and asked to give the price of a stated item; this continued until one of the contestants broke the tie (re-ties and all-overbids were thrown out). The Showcases remain in today's CBS version (including the phrase "This Showcase can be yours if The Price is Right"), while Home Viewer Showcases were done for a time in the 1980s (including to-the-penny guesses). Prizes While many of the prizes on the original Price Is Right were normal, standard game show fare (e.g., furniture, appliances, home electronics, furs, trips, and cars), there were many instances of outlandish prizes being offered. This was particularly true of the nighttime version, which had a larger prize budget. Some examples: * A 1926 Rolls-Royce with chauffeur * A Ferris wheel * Shares of corporate stock * An island in the St. Lawrence Seaway Sometimes, large amounts of food (such as a mile of hot dogs along with buns and enough condiments (perhaps to go with a barbecue pit)) were offered as the bonus. Some other examples of outlandish or "exceptionally unique" bonus prizes: * Accompanying a color TV, a live peacock (a play on the NBC logo) to serve as a "color guide". * Accompanying a barbecue pit and the usual accessories, a live Angus steer. * Accompanying a prize package of items needed to throw a backyard party, big band legend Woody Herman and His Orchestra. * Accompanying a raccoon coat worth $29.95, a sable coat valued at $23,000. * A bonus prize of a 16x32' in-ground swimming pool, installed in the winner's back yard in one day's time. * A bonus prize of a trip to Israel to appear as an extra in the 1960 film Exodus. (Both offered on the January 13, 1960 airing.) In the early 1960s, the dynamic of the national economy was such that the nighttime show could offer homes in new subdivisions (sometimes fully furnished) as prizes, sometimes with truly suspenseful bidding among the contestants. In the last two seasons of the nighttime run, the series gave away small business franchises (like a take-out fried chicken establishment or a mobile dry-cleaning operation). In some events, the outlandish prizes were merely for show; for instance, contestants may bid on the original retail price for a 1920's car, but would instead win a more contemporary model. Current Version Gameplay One Bid One Bid is a qualifying game, played with four contestants standing at the foot of the stage ("Contestants' Row"). A prize is shown and each player gives a bid for the item. Contestants bid in dollars and not cents (as the retail prices are rounded off to the nearest dollar) and may not bid the same amount as any player bid previously for that item. The contestant who bids closest to the actual retail price of the prize, without going over, wins the prize and advances on to the stage for an individual pricing game. A contestant that bids the exact price also receives a cash bonus ($100 from 1977-1998, $500 starting in 1998). If all four contestants overbid, they all must bid again. Four initial contestants are chosen from the audience at the start of the show to play the first One Bid round and bid in order from left to right; before each subsequent One Bid round, a new contestant is chosen from the audience to replace the previous winner (new contestants always went first). The Contestant's Row Podiums When the show started out as a half-hour show, all four podiums were orange and the contestants' bids were in eggcrate displays, with a Goodson-Todman asterisk on the left (similar to the star on the left on the original version) to indicate the winning bid (both the bid and the asterisk would flash upon the ARP reveal). But starting in 1975 prior to becoming an hour long show, the podiums appear in different colors and in this order: red, green, orange, and blue; plus the bids were/are now in sportstype display. The colors of the 2nd & 4th podiums switched in 1981. Starting from the airdate of January 31, 2003 in the Daytime Series, and with the 1st Million Dollar Spectacular, the color of the 3rd podium changed from orange to yellow and has stayed there ever since. From Seasons 36 and 37, the colors all became a brighter screen from a previous normal screen. From 2009 on, Contestant Row is made up of LCD monitors, but the familiar sportstype display remains, plus the screens can now hold five digits (prior to this, the screens held four) and also the brighter colors were changed back to its normal colors. Starting in season 40, the frame borders around the displays were removed. PIR 1.PNG|The original Contestants Row podiums from 1972. PIR 2.PNG|Contestants Row from 1975, shortly before the show debuted to one hour. PIR 3.PNG|The Contestants Row frame border colors turned red for a brief period in the 1980s. PIR 4.PNG|Contestants Row from 1993. The display borders have been changed back to the standard green and would remain this way for many years. PIR 5.PNG|From 2006. Along with the orange podium now being yellow, silver borders were added to the displays. PIR 6.PNG|From 2007. Notice that the red display was changed to orange. PIR 7.PNG|The revamped displays from 2010. Red has been changed back from orange. PIR 8.PNG|Contestants Row with removed frame borders, from 2011. Pricing games Each winner of the six One Bid rounds is called onto the stage to play a pricing game to play for a prize or prizes valued at least several thousand dollars. List of Pricing Games Here is a list of all the pricing games played on The Price is Right. Active pricing games (those still being played) are in bold. *Add 'em Up *'Any Number' *Balance Game (1) *'Balance Game (2)' *Barker's Bargain Bar *Barker's Markers (also called Make Your Mark on Carey and Davidson versions) *'Bonkers' *'Bonus Game' *Bullseye (1)+ *'Bullseye (2)' *Bump *Buy or Sell *'Card Game' *'Check Game' (formally called Blank Check)+ *'Check-Out' *Clearance Sale *'Cliff Hangers' *'Clock Game' *'Coming or Going' *'Cover Up' *'Credit Card' *'Danger Price' *'Dice Game' (called "Deluxe" Dice Game during the 80s for five digit priced cars) *Double Bullseye+ *Double Digits *'Double Prices' *'Easy as 1 2 3' *Finish Line *'Five Price Tags' *'Flip Flop' *Fortune Hunter *'Freeze Frame' *Gallery Game *'Gas Money' *Give or Keep *'Golden Road' *'Grand Game' *'Grocery Game' *'1/2 Off' *'Hi Lo' *Hit Me *'Hole in One (or Two)' *Hurdles *'It's in the Bag' *It's Optional *Joker *'Let 'em Roll' *'Line em Up' *'Lucky $even' *'Magic #' *'Make Your Move' *'Master Key' *'Money Game' (once called "Big" Money Game in the 80s for five digit priced cars) *'More or Less' *'Most Expensive' *Mystery Price *'Now....or Then' (formerly Now....and Then) *On the Nose *On the Spot *'One Away' *'1 Right Price' *'One Wrong Price' *'Pass the Buck' *'Pathfinder' *'Pay The Rent' *Penny Ante *The Phone Home Game *'Pick-a-Number' *'Pick-a-Pair' *'Plinko' *'Pocket Change' *Poker Game *Professor Price *'Punch a Bunch/Punchboard' *'Push Over' *'Race Game' *'Range Game' *'Rat Race' *'Safe Crackers' *'Secret "X"' *'Shell Game' *'Shopping Spree' *Shower Game *'Side by Side' *'Spelling Bee' *Split Decision *'Squeeze Play' *'Stack the Deck' *'Step Up' *Super Ball!! *Super Saver *'Swap Meet' *'Switch?' *'Switcheroo' *'Take Two' *Telephone Game *'Temptation' *'Ten Chances' *'That's Too Much!' *'3 Strikes '(once called "3 Strikes +" in the '80s for five-digit-priced cars) *Time Is Money *Trader Bob *'Triple Play' *'2 for the Price of 1' *Walk of Fame +At one time due to the difficulty of playing and lack of winners, Bullseye (1) switched to two-player mode, hence the name Double Bullseye. This particular format found its way to the Australian version for their Showcase round. +''Blank Check'' was renamed Check Game due to a lawsuit by Jack Barry Productions due to the fact that the company produced a game show with that name. For more information on these pricing games, visit the List of Pricing Games page on Wikipedia. ---- There are currently over 70 pricing games in rotation. Regardless of whether or not the pricing game is won, all One-Bid winners advance automatically to the Showcase Showdown, which occurs twice in each hour-long episode, after every three pricing games. Prior to the expansion to 60-minute episodes, during the first two nighttime versions, and some late 1980s-early 1990s cut-down daytime episodes (due to the Pillsbury Bake-Off), each 30-minute episode featured only three One-Bids, each followed by a pricing game. After three pricing games had been played, the two on-stage contestants with the greatest winnings faced off in the Showcase. Showcase Showdown Used since the show expanded to a 60-minute format in 1975, and only in 60-minute formats, the Showcase Showdown determines which contestants will compete in the Showcases at the end of the show. There are two Showcase Showdowns in each episode, one each after every three pricing games. Each Showcase Showdown features the three contestants who played the preceding three pricing games. Each contestant spins a large wheel which is segmented and marked with values from five cents to a dollar, in increments of five cents. The wheel must make one complete downward revolution for the spin to qualify, and the contestant will be booed by the audience and must spin again if the spin fails to do so. Disabled contestants or those otherwise unable to make a qualifying spin are generally assisted by either a family member/friend or the host. The winner of each Showdown is the contestant who spins the highest value closest to one dollar in one spin or the total of two spins without exceeding one dollar. A total of exactly one dollar wins $1,000 and (starting in 1978) also earned a bonus spin for a potential cash prize of either $10,000 (for landing on the one of the two green sections consisting of $0.05 & $0.15) or $25,000 (for landing on the $1.00 space). Originally from 1978 to 2008, the prizes were $5,000 for a green section and $10,000 for one dollar. For the bonus spin, the contestant must get the wheel all the way around or the spin is void and they do not get another spin. The two Showdown winners in each show compete in the Showcase following the second Showdown. In the event of a tie, a spin-off is held in which each of the tied contestants is given one spin. The contestant with the highest value advances to the Showcase. In the event that a contestant spins $1.00 in their spin-off spin, they still get $1,000 and a bonus spin. If the tie happens to be between multiple players who scored $1.00, each player's bonus spin also counts as their spin-off. This is disadvantageous for the contestants, since two of the three prize-awarding spaces ($0.05 and $0.15) also happen to be two of the three worst tie-breaking spaces. Contestants who participate in bonus spin-offs and who don't get the wheel all the way around are allowed to spin again, but without the addition of any more bonus money. If the spin-off contestants tie in terms of the prize-awarding spaces, another spin-off is played but without any bonus money at stake. PIR 9.PNG|The original Showcase Showdown wheel from 1975. PIR 10.PNG|The plain-looking Big Wheel from 1976. Notice the lack of green and red spaces. PIR 11.PNG|From 1979, with green spaces added. PIR 12.PNG|From 1989. This design lasted for a good amount of time on the show. PIR 14.PNG|The late 80s design lasted for a short time into the Drew Carey years as well. PIR 13.PNG|This is the infamous "Purple Wheel" from 2008. PIR 13.png|This is what the wheel looks like these days. The Showcases The two qualifying contestants are shown a large prize package. The contestant with the larger total of cash and prizes (the "top winner") may either bid on that showcase or pass it to their opponent (the "runner-up"). A second prize package is then shown, and whichever contestant has not yet bid must bid on that showcase. Unlike the One-Bid, one player may bid the same bid as the other, as they are each bidding on separate prize packages. The contestant who bids closer to the combined "actual retail price" of the items in their showcase without going over wins that showcase. If both contestants bid higher than the actual price of their own showcases, referred to as a "double overbid," they both lose. If the winning contestant bids within $250 of the price of his/her showcase, he/she wins both showcases. This rule was introduced in 1974 for a winner whose bid was "less than $100" under the price; the threshold was raised to "$250 or less" staring with the 27th season premiere show in 1998. The nighttime syndicated shows had no such rule. In 60-minute episodes, the Showcase participants are the winners of the two Showcase Showdowns. In the 30-minute format, the top two winners from the pricing games automatically advance to the Showcase. Showcasepremiere.jpg|The Showcase podiums from the premiere. 72show110.JPG|This was the first ever prize setup which only last the premiere. This contestant was off by $4 but there was no offering of both Showcases; so therefore this player won only his Showcase. Showcase72a.jpg|The Showcase podiums from a 1972 episode. That's memorable contestant Boo Boo Cooper on the left. Showcase72b.jpg|Instead of the early setup, we had just simple prize cards. Showcase72c.jpg|The modified Showcase podiums from 1972. Showcase72d.jpg|The contestant on the right won her Showcase which included a car, for a total of $4213. Showcase75a.jpg|The Showcase podiums with the familiar asterisks from a 1975 episode. Showcase75b.jpg|This Showcase round produced the closest differences between both contestants, by $1. And they both had a shot at both Showcases (the left contestant won). Showcase77a.jpg|These are the Showcase podiums from 1977. Showcase77b.jpg|Who will win her Showcase? Showcase84a.jpg|The Showcase podiums from 1984. The green asterisk has been changed to orange and the the red asterisk has been changed to purple. Showcase84b.jpg|Who will win her Showcase? The orange contestant was off by $558. Showcase86a.jpg|The Showcase podiums from 1986. The more longer lived podiums. Showcase86b.jpg|The purple contestant won with a difference of only $800! Showcase04a.jpg|The Showcase podiums from 2004. Showcase04b.jpg|The blue contestant won! Showcase05a.jpg|The modified Showcase podiums from 2005. Showcase05b.jpg|Who will win his or her Showcase? Showcasecarey07a.jpg|The Showcase podiums from Drew Carey's first aired show. Showcasecarey07b.jpg|Who will win his or her Showcase? Showcasecarey11a.jpg|The Showcase podiums from 2011. Showcasecarey11b.jpg|A DOUBLE SHOWCASE WINNER!!!!! Celebrity Week For the first week of 2012, The Price is Right held a special Celebrity Week in which five celebrities (one for each week) appear. Their job is to help the contestants win their pricing games, and whatever the contestants win, the celebrities receive price of the prizes they win in cash and donated to their favorite charities. In addition, the celeb of the day will be spinning the big wheel, and whatever the star landed on will have two zeroes added to it at the end and turned into dollars; so therefore the celeb can donate anywhere from $500-$10,000. And finally, the celebrity of the day will help present the two Showcases of that day. Here are the celebrities that appeared or will appear in that week: Other Versions 1994 Version A short lived 80-episode syndicated version of The Price is Right, featuring elements never before seen on any version of TPiR, including among other things, the removal of Contestant's Row, and the replacement of the Turntable, with a video wall. Some pricing games on The New Price Is Right (not to be confused with the current version's original title) were played with slight modifications to the rules as played on the daytime version. Games which usually featured grocery products were played with small prizes instead (e.g., Golden Road, Grand Game and Hole in One), and some games featured other experimental rule changes. *'Barker's Markers:' The name was changed to "Make Your Mark" the single time it was played on this version of the show, as Bob Barker was not the host of this version. This name was adopted on the daytime show in 2008 when Drew Carey became the host. *'Clock Game:' The game was digitized, with no prop on stage for it, and the contestant was provided with a $1,000 range in which to guess the price of each prize. The game frequently used prizes with four-digit prices. On some occasions a third prize was awarded as a bonus for winning (a rule change which was adopted on the daytime version in 2009). *'Hole in One:' Small prizes were used instead of grocery items. When an item was chosen, its price was immediately revealed and then placed in line if it was higher than the previous prize chosen. On the daytime version, the price flags are arranged in line according to the contestant's choice before the prices are revealed. *'Magic #:' This used a Double Prices-like prop to hold the prices of the two prizes rather than the models hold them. The Magic Number set by the contestant playing was superimposed in between. *'Plinko:' While the top prize remained the same at $5,000 per chip for a potential total of $25,000, two configurations of slots were utilized (one of which featured replaced the outer $100 slots with two $2,500 slots). The method of earning chips was also changed from choosing the right number in the right position to a higher/lower pricing format with smaller prizes worth up to $400. *'Punch a Bunch:' During some playings, Davidson pulled the slip out of the hole as soon as it was punched. The player then decided to keep the money or punch another hole. On the daytime show, the slips are not revealed until the contestant has made all of his or her initial punches. *'Safe Crackers:' Instead of having the secondary prize (the one in which its price doubles as the safe's combination) inside the safe with the main prize, the secondary prize was outside the safe and talked about after the model locked the door. *'3 Strikes:' The first number was lit at the beginning of the game and the number could repeat elsewhere in the price. Four chips representing the remaining numbers in the price were then placed into the bag with three strike chips. These rules were adopted on the daytime show in 2008, but the game's original rules returned in 2009. Also, the super-imposed "NO" sign for misplaced numbers was replaced with a red box which appeared around the space where the contestant thought the number he/she pulled out belonged in; it melted down the screen if the contestant was wrong. Plinko Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h24m15s236.png|Due to there being no turntable, the "Plinko" sign gets moved to the back of the audience. Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h32m31s65.png|As mentioned, TNPiR'94 used the "Higher/Lower" format for earning chips. Here's a wrong price. Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h35m01s22.png|This is what you see for a correct guess. Tnp 16.jpg|This is what you see for an incorrect guess. Vlcsnap-2011-08-20-20h25m21s241.png|Again, as mentioned, Plinko used two money sequences. This one was only used on the first playing. Vlcsnap-2011-08-15-22h22m00s246.png|And here's the other one, similar to the daytime show, but with $2500 instead of $100 spaces. The biggest win in this version was $16,500. Punch-A-bunch Vlcsnap-2012-03-22-19h19m14s154.png|It's not a giant $10,000 bill... Vlcsnap-2012-03-22-19h19m28s32.png|...but it's still Punch-A-bunch. Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-04h13m26s48.png|As mentioned, Golden Road started with a small prize. Sometimes it was a product like a fire extingusher... Vlcsnap-2012-03-22-18h57m27s144.png|...or a fishbowl of cash, representing a random number. Ten Chances Vlcsnap-2012-03-22-18h22m39s231.png|One unique distinction about this version was the fact that there were not just one... Vlcsnap-2012-03-22-18h23m27s217.png|...but two perfect playings of Ten Chances. 3 Strikes Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h12m07s118.png|Occasionally, other items like rubber chickens were put in the bag for humor. Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h09m32s26.png|The "3 Strikes" board, with the first number given. Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h10m36s132.png|An example of a wrong guess. Clock Game Tnp 56.jpg|Besides the rule changes, "Clock Game" also had two ways of displaying the prize, this... Clock Game.jpg|...and this. Squeeze Play Tnp 46.jpg|"Squeeze Play" was played in one of two positions on stage: between Doors 1 and 2.. Tnp 47.jpg|..and in front of the Video Wall. Other Pricing Games vlcsnap-2012-03-21-02h50m37s12.png|The "Make Your Mark" board, with a display covering the "Barker's Marker$" logo. vlcsnap-2012-03-21-02h51m26s243.png|The "Hole in One" green. The $500 bonus wasn't mentioned until won. vlcsnap-2012-03-21-02h52m37s186.png|The repurposed Magic # "Double Prices" board, with the most expensive prize on top. vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h16m32s206.png|Here's Any Number... vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h19m29s181.png|..."Money Game"... vlcsnap-2012-03-23-07h54m11s55.png|...and "One Away". vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h44m38s172.png|Here's "Safe Crackers", with the smaller prize to the left of the safe. vlcsnap-2012-03-21-04h03m30s229.png|Here's "Cliff Hangers". Doug called the mountain climber "Hans", after Hans Gudegast, the real name of his Y&R costar, Eric Braedon. vlcsnap-2012-03-21-03h21m33s92.png|Here's "Shell Game" in front of Door 2, with small prizes off to the side. Vlcsnap-2012-03-22-19h08m48s36.png|Here's Temptation! Vlcsnap-2012-03-22-19h16m55s32.png|While Superball was basically the same, the balls were thrown after each guess, and the small prizes were off to the side. Vlcsnap-2012-03-22-19h26m43s38.png|Here be Grand Game. vlcsnap-2012-03-23-07h50m49s87.png|The only change to Lucky $even was using the buzzer for a wrong guess. vlcsnap-2012-03-23-07h49m46s184.png|WARNING, DANGER PRICE! vlcsnap-2012-03-23-07h50m01s104.png|Get set to roll dem bones. vlcsnap-2012-03-23-07h51m41s93.png|Secret X marks the spot. The Showcase Showdown was played with the traditional Big Wheel, but it mostly used a new format called "The Price WAS Right." This was played like the One-Bid games in the daytime version. The three players stand in front of a quasi-Contestant's Row, arranged either by least to most winnings or by the order they were called. A vintage commercial for a product was presented to the three contestants who were then asked to bid on what the product cost at the time the commercial first aired. The contestant with the closest bid without going over advanced to the Showcase. In the event that all three contestants overbid (which rarely happened), the bids were erased and began again, with Davidson instructing contestants to bid lower than the lowest bid in the previous round. No bonus was awarded for a "Perfect Bid." Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-04h19m10s156.png|Here be an old friend of ours. Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-04h20m19s81.png|Here's "The Price WAS Right"... Vlcsnap-2012-03-21-04h20m39s31.png|...and it's modified "Contestant's Row". The Showcase was also changed, With only one person playing the Showcase, the pricing game Range Game was modified for this round. A new prop was built with a $60,000 scale ($10,000 to $70,000). During the show's final commercial break, the winner of the Showcase Showdown chose a range at random between $3,000 and $10,000 (in $1,000 increments). A single showcase was then presented. Once it was finished, the rangefinder was started up the scale. The contestant pulled a lever when they thought the showcase value was contained within the range. If correct, the contestant won the showcase, which was generally worth between $20,000-$60,000, comparatively higher than average showcase values on the daytime show (which, at the time, offered showcases usually worth between $10,000-$30,000). Although this Showcase format was unsuccessful in the United States, a modified version of this is used on versions of the show in other countries. A music package by Edd Kalehoff was made for this version, along with some recycled cues from the daytime version thrown in for certain events. This package was recycled into the daytime, Million Dollar Spectaculars and Gameshow Marathon eps after this version's cancellation. 2006 Gameshow Marathon The only real difference is that in the Showcase Showdown, the top two highest scoring players get to proceed to the showcase since only three games were played. Music 1st Main (1956) - "Sixth Finger Tune" by Sonny Burke and His Orchestra 2nd Main (1956) - "Window Shopping" by Bob Cobert - Later used on Snap Judgment and Say When!! 1972, 2006 - Shelia Cole 1972 (fast; recorded in 1983) - Edd Kalehoff 1994 (Davidson) - Edd Kalehoff (Recycled into daytime, Million Dollar and GS Marathon eps) 2007 - Edd Kalehoff The second run uses over 500 cues in its numerous games and situations with cues by numerous composers as well as cues from other (Goodson) shows. Other shows it borrows cues from include Match Game (73), Concentration (73), Celebrity Charades, Now You See It, Hit Man, Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour, Family Feud (76, 88 and 94), Backchat, Wide World of Sports, ABC Golf, Powerball: The Game Show, and Let's Make a Deal (09). Other cues by Score Productions, Edd Kalehoff, Robert Israel, Ken Bichel, Michael Karp, Ole Georg Music, Killer Tracks, and many others. Discography Page Inventors Bob Stewart, Mark Goodson & Bill Todman Merchandise A board game based on the 1956 version was made in 1958 by Lowell. Another version was released by Milton Bradley in 1964 in a card game format. Another board game based on the 1972 version was made in 1973 by Milton Bradley with a second edition made in 1974 and a third edition of the game was made in 1976. Another version was released in 1986 by Milton Bradley. Two home games were made in 1999 and 2004 by Endless Games. A PC game for DOS was released in 1990 by GameTek. A DVD game was released in 2005. A DVD compilation set featuring 20 episodes was released in 2008. Games for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC were released in 2008 and again in 2009 by Ubisoft. An official online store with many TPIR novelty items was started in 2010. The link is in the Links section. Trivia This is the longest running game show in America with the second version running for 40 years, nearly 7,500 episodes and counting. Foreign personalities from international versions stopped by to the American show occasionally. For the 40th season, Larry Emdur, 3rd host of the Australian version (who was also one of the past hosts of Australian Wheel of Fortune and currently one of the hosts for the Seven Network morning show) will be making a guest appearance. TPIR in Popular Culture *The original version of The Price is Right (or in this case The Prize is Priced) made an appearance on an episode of The Flintstones in which Barney Rubble appeared as a contestant. Barney missed out on one prize, but struck paydirt in the next round by winning a houseboat by bidding a mere two cents. *In the 1988 Pixar short film Tin Toy, ''the TV was on in the background and one of the channels had ''The Price is Right ''on it. It had sound only since the camera focused on the baby and the Tin Toy, not the TV. Credits go to Mark Goodson Productions and Price Productions. *''2 Stupid Dogs, a cartoon originally aired on Cartoon Network, did a parody of TPIR called Let's Make a Right Price (self-explanatory title). While the format is generally the same, the losers of the bids get doggy treats, which is what the two dogs actually want because they were scavenging for food on the studio lot. *''Price'' was also mentioned in some episodes of Family Guy. The first few episodes were for Barker's era. When Prince was on the show, he bid $350 for the prize which Bob could not understand and bid exactly correct. There was also another time when the Griffins rode on the Yodeller from Cliff Hangers and Cleveland being inside the Plinko chip. Another clip from Barker's era on Family Guy is that after a contestant bid $780, the last contestant bid $781. That infuriated the contestant bidding $780, so he said "F**K YOU!". There were a couple of episodes where Price was mentioned in Carey's era. The first episode is where Peter is in the Showcase Showdown and he drinks Red Bull which causes the wheel to spin super fast. After Peter sends out greetings to everyone to the camera, the wheel breaks off, rolls down and kills a section of the audience. Then Peter replies, "Whoa, Paramedics, Come on Down!" and goes crazy. Another episode during the current Carey era was when a girl got a very crummy showcase which included a hammock, chalk, and a trip to Wilmington, Delaware. To much of her disgust, she replies, "I moved my abortion for this". Additionally, Rich was to be in one episode of Family Guy but he was dubbed over when his contract was not renewed and he was let go. *In 1994, Bob Barker guest starred on The Nanny where he sat at a table when Nanny Fran Fine (Fran Drescher) spotted him. *During Bob's final year as host, the show made an appearance on How I Met Your Mother in which Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) was a contestant on the show. Barney claimed that Bob Barker was his father (which is completely untrue since Bob never had human children, and Neil knows it), so he came on the show just to meet & impress him. Barney was on a roll that day. The pricing game he played was Clock Game and he got price the first prize on his first guess (an achievement at least two contestants on the real show did) though we never saw it; on the second prize, Barney purposely guess $1,000,000 all just to show Bob Barney's self pictures; by the time the clock almost ran out, Barney came through with the right answer and won. Later Barney spun 1.00 on the wheel, and bids exactly right on the Showcase (something that would really happen during Drew Carey's second year as host); and just when Barney was about to tell Bob that he was Bob's son, he instead congratulated Bob on 35 years as host of The Price is Right. Barney never kept any of the prizes he won, instead he gave them all as wedding presents to his friends & newlyweds Marshall & Lily (Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan). The main plot of the episode in fact was the preparation of their wedding day. Neil went on to become a special guest during celebrity week at the beginning of 2012 and won $65,238.40 for his favorite charity. *''The Price is Right'' was also part of the plotlines during three consecutive episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful. Forrester Creations hasn't been doing too well, so Pam Douglas (Alley Mills) gave a call to The Price is Right and asked them to show off their fashion pieces on the models, but the show declined. So what Pam did instead was to appear on the show as a contestant and took Donna Logan (Jennifer Gareis) with her much to Donna's chagrin. But as it turned out, Donna was picked to be a contestant and surprisingly did very well. She won her pricing game which was Let 'em Roll after winning her One-Bid down at Contestant's Row, beat her two opponents at the Showcase Showdown Big Wheel, and ended up winning both Showcases; during the closing of the show (like all loved ones of Showcase winning contestants) Pam came up on stage where she finally met Drew Carey. Additionally, Pam reveals her own fan crush on Rich. NOTES: Prior to these episodes, Bob Barker made a guest appearance on the popular soap opera; two of the models had connections to B&B, Gwendolyn Osbourne-Smith started out as one of the models on that show before becoming a TPIR model & Manuela Arbeláez appeared in two episodes of B&B alongside Ellen Degeneres Show DJ Tony Okungbowa (Bob Barker ironically was one of Ellen's guests during the time of his final year); Jack Wagner of B&B made two guest appeances on TPIR. *Bob Barker appeared in a cameo role in the Adam Sandler film Happy Gilmore where he & Happy (Adam) got into a big fight due to having some trouble during a golf match. For one moment, Happy thought he won (when Bob was unconscious Happy/Adam said "The Price is Wrong"), but it turned out that it was a trick, for the tables were turned quite suddenly and Bob ended up winning the fight. Adam (being that he was/is a huge Price is Right fan) visited the show during a Price is Right special focusing on Bob's 50 years on Television after a playing of Plinko. Taglines "Bob Barker reminding you to help control the pet population, have your pet spayed or neutered. Goodbye, everybody!" - Bob Barker (mid-80s-2007) "Don't forget to spay and neuter your pets. It's very important./It's the right thing to do. Thanks for watching The Price is Right. We’ll see you next time. Buh-bye!" - Drew Carey (2007-present) Links Official Site Official Site (CBS) The Price is Right Store Golden-Road.Net: The Unofficial Price is Right Fansite tpir.tv: Another Unofficial Price is Right Fansite The Price is Right Fanpage - Set graphics, photos and much much more! 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